president kennedy and his funeral cemented her in the public consciousness. welcome to the c-span series, first ladies, influence and image. we have two guests at the table, to tell you more about her story. he has a special focus on the cold war era and the kennedy administration. robert parry is a political scientist and as part of the modern first ladies series, he has written the jacqueline kennedy biography. before we get into more details about her white house years, i want to talk about the images of that assassination. anyone who was alive at that time has those images in their mind. this is a collective consciousness. she was just 34 years old. >> just 34 years old.

we know so much about this story. he was shot and into her arms, for five minutes they were there and she felt that they left the hospital to go back to washington, but they had to do something to make sure that he had the historical reputation. >> what would a 34-year-old woman have sense of that experience? what did she draw from? there are so many iconic images together in such a short time. >> she said when she was young woman, my ambition in life is to be the art director of the 20th century. and she almost turned out to be that. and she felt one thing that would be important for his legacy, as horrible as dallas was, to wipe out the view of

that, and having three or four days of ceremony that she wished would be what they would remember, not the tawdry miss of what happened. >> this is not the first presidential assassination and president -- presidential widow. as a political scientist you talk about the power of television, how did this work in this case. >> she wanted to go back to the rights for abraham lincoln, the first assassinated resident. she asked her brother-in-law and his various friends to come to her aid, to find books on the lincoln funeral and all of this played out on television. when eisenhower was first elected in 1962, 20% of american households had television sets, but in 1963 about 90% had televisions.

i can remember sitting in the family living room on that night of november 22, 1963 and saying mrs. kennedy walk out of air force one, behind her husband's casket. i remember my parents and older brother gasping at seeing her. >> what she said -- lady bird johnson said -- let me get someone to help you. >> but she understood the power of that imagery, we have two hours to tell you with video clips and audio clips, the story of jacqueline kennedy. we encourage you to take part once again tonight, there are three ways to do this, you can tweet us, at first ladies, or on our facebook page, or you can

call us. our numbers are -- mountan/pacific -- we will get to your calls in just a bit. i start with a phone conversation with president johnson. i want to ask about why we have them, before we listen very >> he takes his telephone conversations, as eisenhower and roosevelt -- with johnson this was about 650 hours over five years. and in most cases this was without the knowledge that would include jacqueline kennedy. at that point, there was a very good relationship with lbj. >> this is the phone conversation was just 10 days after the death of her husband. this is a phone conversation

with lyndon johnson. >> you just have to give me strength. >> i wasn't going to come over. >> you just come over and put your arm around me, let's walk around the backyard. let me tell you how much you mean to all of us, and how we can carry on, -- >> i know how rare a letter is in the president's handwriting. i have more in your handwriting than i do in jack's handwriting, for you to send me the thing today, the announcement and everything -- >> i want you to know that i told my mother a long time ago, when everyone else gave up about my election in 1948 -- you have

a lot of courage that we men don't have. so we have to rely on you and depend on you and you have something to do. you have the president relying on you, there are not many women running around -- so you have the biggest job in your life. >> i ran around with two presidents, that is what they will say about me. ok, anytime. thank you for calling, mr. president. >> do come by. >> this relationship was not always the easiest of relationships, but how did he treat the departing first family and jackie kennedy? >> very well and mrs. kennedy talked about how grateful she was for president johnson. she would have to say president johnson unlike the president's brother, who she called a couple of hours across -- after the

assassination -- president johnson -- the very easily to calling him mr. president. but she was very grateful to president johnson, that they were so grateful to her, and they let her stay in the white house until december 6. she was able to stay there with her children until she got the sense of where she was going to go. and in the carnage in dallas, she lost her husband, her home and her job. she had no place to go until the home was open in georgetown. caroline was going to nursery school and kindergarten. she was very grateful to the president for that. >> you have listened to a lot of jacqueline kennedy -- she sounds so in control of herself, 10 days after the assassination and going to the funeral, how do we understand her and her psyche issues.

>> you will find someone who has lost a spouse or someone very close to them -- during the days of the funeral and the ceremony, she said -- just keep on moving right now, we can collapse later. there were enough decisions that she had to make -- decisions about the presidential library, making sure that the children were as and as well of environment as possible. you cannot think of anything more abnormal than, the children lost their father this way. and once she got to georgetown she did almost collapse. this was late december and the beginning of spring. before them -- for the four of them, you can ask for more than she did with keeping the situation together. >> in the days before the trip

to dallas, what was the popularity of the kennedy administration and mrs. kennedy? >> the president had suffered because of civil rights. he had fallen in the southern states and he was concerned. he was going to texas to try to connect to the party there and raise money for the 1964 campaign. this was really the kickoff for the presidential election campaign. gallup did not take regular polls about the first lady at that time. but early on, in 1961, she was polling at about 59%. and starting in 1960 gallup did take this -- the most admired woman pole. in 1962 she supplanted eleanor roosevelt, who had the number one for about 12 years, and mrs. kennedy was for about five or four years after that. and they had lost their baby patrick in august of 1963 and i

think people felt kindness towards her. >> when john kennedy was planning his campaign in 19 60 there was an offhand remark -- we will have to run her through subliminally. she had been raised in an elite way -- and she might not be too politically helpful. and there was no one who was more astounded and delighted that she had turned out this way. so in the state of texas -- john conley and the others in texas said, you have to bring mrs. kennedy. she is so popular and you will have much bigger crowds. >> i have to say that john kennedy was much more wealthy

than she. so why would the public not react to his help? >> he felt as may political leaders that come from affluent backgrounds, -- in 1957 she bought him a jaguar as a birthday gift. he had this returned -- but he felt she was not someone who had a lot of political experience, and in 1960 -- this might be a difficult -- >> she felt she was a drag on him in the early days. >> she said, i am sorry i'm such a drag for you. but this did not stop this -- this did not last long. >> i want to talk about the imagery of camelot. >> jackie kennedy asked teddy white, who was a family friend, to come up and interview her,

with the idea of what she wanted to say would get into life magazine. she said, late at night, before jack and i were in the white house, wheeze to play the record of camelot. and needless to say, the editors and life thought, this would be the big thing -- and they may camelot the major theme of the article. when it came out, the kennedy presidency and camelot made its debut. in the end -- this may not have been something that helped. there nights and the noble deeds they were setting him up for the revisionary of the 1970s. >> she must have known that these would come along and that she could get out in front of them, with this wonderful

shining moment. one brief, shining moment and there was a dark side of camelot but all you have to do is look at the imagery and see that they were a wonderful couple with beguiling children. >> to talk on the 1960s campaign that brought them to the white house -- we will do that throughout the program tonight. to learn more about her role in helping her husband during that campaign. >> mrs. kennedy spoke in rate length about president kennedy and his love of reading, his believe in the power of words, and this is a belief that they both shared. what i like about this story here, is it shows an example of the believe in the power of

words, this is a great example of collaboration between husband and wife. this is early in the presidential campaign and in the early days, mrs. kennedy did travel with him as much as possible, and this is a reading copy of the speech he presented in washington state in june of 1959. mrs. kennedy was with him at that dinner, president kennedy had speechwriters and he would often rewrite his speeches up until the moment he was about to deliver it, and at this dinner, he wanted to close the speech with some verses from the great home, you'll he sees. and he asked mrs. kennedy, there is a note here. can you have the last line from you lisi's? and following in her hand is the

rest of the poem, which she knew, from memory. and gave it to him to close his speech, with those words. >> we have a viewer who says, you rarely see mrs. candy in clips from the 1960s. because of the difficulty of her 1966 presidency, she was actively campaigning for her husband -- did she feel that she could not bear losing another baby when she was pregnant again? >> she had a terrible record in her pregnancy, she had lost a baby to miscarriage in 1965, and then as this person points out, she lost a little girl in 1956, right after that very hot, not air-conditioned -- >> she was really just afraid to go. i think what this person is referring to is about april -- april to 1960, she did tend to stay home, but she did go with

the president of the, in 1962 manhattan, but she was great with child. the child would be john junior. >> then bradley also had a wife who was with child, and right after the election was one in hyannisport, he said to the two women, you can take the pillows out, we have one. >> what role did she play and you talked about the concern -- at one point does john kennedy realize he had a political asset? >> the moment that began to happen is when they went to paris in spring of 1961, and a lot of people turned out both to see john kennedy, and jackie. who was known to be -- of french ancestry, she spoke french and new french history -- and we

will talk about this later on, in february of 1962, she did the tour of the white house she had worked so hard to restore. >> this is after she was in, she began to work on sustaining popularity. we will start with a few calls. ida in west palm beach, you are on the air. >> thank you, i am enjoying this series very much. i was only five years old when the president was assassinated, so i don't really remember it, but i have read so many books about the president and mrs. kennedy, i'm great admirer of hers. one of the biggest images was her pink stained suit, and after she removed it -- she did not

want to remove it before they returned to washington, as she said, she wanted the world to see what had happened to him. what did become of that suit? was it destroyed or has it been preserved somewhere? and if so, where? and will it ever be shown to the public? >> as i understand, once she removed it, it was stored, i believe in her mother's attic. people are familiar with manchester -- the last paragraph of that book talks about what he saw, after some years went by, the package -- he could see the stains and if someone did not know the story of that suit, someone would say that the person who wore that has met a terrible end. >> they might even wonder who has been to blame.

>> as we understand, with the archives, i understand that this is still missing but this is with the archives, caroline has made sure that it will not appear to the public before 2103. we will not see it. unless there are changes in medical science. >> mary, from utah, you are on. >> this has been amazing and wonderful, one of the best things on television. thank you for that. my question is, jacqueline kennedy, such a great style icon and known for that, her privates secretary, mary gallagher -- this was an issue with the president, the cost of the wardrobe. nothing was spent on her clothing. was she known as a frugal individual otherwise?

thank you so much. >> not by her husband, if we answer truthfully. but she spent an awful lot on clothing, and by the best information we have, this was actually started by joseph kennedy, who said, just send me the bills. this is something that would be very important to that presidency. it turned out to be a great asset. >> this was a big story in the 1960 campaign, that she must have spent $30,000 a year on her wardrobe. >> they could not spend $30,000 >> pat nixon -- >> this was a close election, for the public. >> and she wore that to the inauguration. so next, i'm going to have jacqueline kennedy, in her own words.

a project you know very well. the book that came out of this. the life of john f. kennedy -- which you annotated in introduced, and work with caroline kennedy on. what is this project? >> when jackie kennedy, right in the wake of the assassination, there was a story -- that her husband would not amount to much but she was so determined to help him win this reputation, one of the things that was urged on her by the white house aide and historian -- was to record all the history. which they spoke on briefly at the university of virginia. when there are historical events that may not be recorded, you go in an interview a great figure

in history and try to fill in the gaps. she would be at her house in georgetown, about eight times, only a few months after the assassination, with her memories were fresh. the idea would be that she would speak freely, as it -- the historian of the 21st century. and this was in 2011 when caroline felt they should be published. >> has anyone else done a similar oral history. >> i am trying to think of that. >> lady bird johnson. >> there is a wonderful book. by oxford university press. all of her oral history interviews as well. >> this is a critique of lyndon johnson and his role as a vice president. >> as his running mate -- to the majority leader. he was raised and mocking jack in every way. jack would say, you can never

get an opinion out of him. they asked to go to luxembourg. you can have a president who is dying to give you a lot to do. to luxembourg -- and lyndon as vice president, he could just do anything. >> i want to read something from barbara's but before i get to michael. you said -- underneath a veil of lovely in consequence, she had tremendous awareness. people were struck by this -- she had a shrewd view of people, who the real people were and to the phonies were, those who are bright and those who were stupid.

the papers were filled with her assessment. did john f. kennedy use this to his advantage as a political partnership. >> they had a mastery of television and that sort of thing. we will talk about the fact she did not have a major impact on policy, nor did she want one and did she want one, and he did not talk to her about it. he did seek her out for advice. i think this is the case that if he was going to have any connection with her, at all, in terms of politics it would be when they went off on these trips or when they were coming back from political trips. she did go to 36 of the 48 states in 1969 and 1960, when they were out with the rank-and- file. she was on the phone with him, saying, that one is phony, that when israel, that one is stupid, that one is smart.

>> you hear the people that she criticizes, the secretary of state -- these are the people who tended not to do too well in the kennedy administration, like robert mcnamara. they did not just listen to her. in those days, they went to taxes on the month of november and since the inauguration, jackie kennedy had never been west of virginia. she did not travel domestically, she had small children and did not campaign, and thought that this was something to do in an election year. this is why going to taxes meant so much. she said, jack, i will do anything to help you because this may be a close election in 1964. >> what do you learn about her savvy?

>> you were mentioning what they said -- that someone had the impression of someone who was not involved in politics. before the election in 1960, and the convention of 1960, she was asked by a reporter where the democratic convention should be held. she said acapulco. >> she said these things, and she was not completely on top of it. this was the potential for those days. the entourage will not help them well -- this would not have helped him very much. in terms of the society in those days -- they were too hard edged, this would not have been

political. >> catherine brown, the publisher of the washington post, to be honest, the kennedy men, they were chauvinists. and they weren't interested in what women had to say about anything. >> when did the tapes come out with the biography? >> the tapes came out thanks to michael and caroline kennedy in 2012, -- 2011, excuse me. much to my chagrin, the tapes were not available to write the book. so in her own words -- >> was this developed in the biography? >> i did. at first i wish i had these but then i realized that this was going to add color and substance, to be sure, and it would have added michael's superb annotation of the oral history. i found it actually follow the example that we just gave,

talking about mrs. kennedy. i thought sn as i listened to this -- >> what also made me think about in terms of the camelot issue, with how she wanted to shake that image -- shape that image of her husband after his death. part of it may have been to raise him up. >> and also, just humanly. helping him on various things -- there is a good oral history. during the presidency, her relationship with lbj -- they said she was the only person in the whole entourage who treated them nicely. by spring of 1964, we are talking all the time -- lbj was talking to her about the shortcomings and you have to

listen to that, with that in mind. >> we are talking about a first- person historical document. in the previous letters -- did jackie do that? >> in a phone conversation with lbj, she says, i have more handwritten letters from you than from jack. >> and trying to say in general he did not like to send letters to anyone. >> with the youngsters, the parents and the siblings. it was not romantic, to his wife. the letters are currently not available at the kennedy library. >> rachel is in portland, oregon. >> thank you so much for this program. i was wondering, how did

jacqueline kennedy influence art and fashion in the united states? >> may i ask how old you are? >> i am 12. >> what a great question. >> how much did you know about jacqueline kennedy before you started watching tonight? >> i've been learning a lot about her. >> why is that? >> i like reading history very much. and i really enjoy studying about her. and finding a book at the library -- >> thank you so much for making the effort to call in. we're going to talk about her -- let me start by showing a video. >> that was a good question. >> at her age -- john f. kennedy was the person i most admired. you could end up with -- in political science, this is a

great life. >> we turn to the library -- and how they interpret her as a style icon. >> she is known as a style icon and has admiration for her fashion sense. the ensemble that she wore as first lady on inauguration day, this will coat and dress. this is just a wonderful example of -- this became very popular and the only thing that she wore during the ensemble, was a really beautiful ruby brooch, by tiffany's. that jfk actually gave her 2 -- celebrate the birth of john junior. and she wore that right after the swearing-in. and most famously, finishing the ensemble, what she wore that

day. she wore that on her head so that her face could be seen, and then became a fashion trend. where the hat would normally be one -- worn on the very top of the head. but she used that to frame her face. and this is one of her best- known dresses, the dress that she wore during her televised tour of the white house in february of 1962. visitors are quite surprised to learn that this is a red dress. the program was filled in black and white and broadcast in black-and-white. she chose the color red for that program, knowing it would be televised on valentine's day, 1962. what's go into the museum and look at other examples of her clothing that we have on display.

she put a lot of thought into her wardrobe, when she was represented in the country both at the white house and while traveling abroad. she talked about what colors would mean something to the country. so for her visit to canada in may of 1961, the first state visit that the kennedys made as president and first lady, she wore this red suit, as a gesture of respect, for the canadian maple leaf and knowing that she would be greeted by the royal canadian mounted police, who wear the color red. this is the green coat and hat worn by the first lady for her arrival in bogotá, colombia in 1961. they traveled throughout south america, and were greeted by hundreds of thousands of people, with an overwhelming response, particularly when she would address the crowds in spanish.

i really admire the thought that she put into her wardrobe. >> what do we know other than the fact that she loved clothes and looked great in them? how do we compare her fashion to influence the country, and advance the position of the united states abroad? >> she felt that it was best for the first lady to dress in the best of american fashion. and bring the best of american culture to the white house. she suffered a bit during the televised tour in 1962, suggesting that thewas no longer this unformed country, but a

country worthy of being considered as a superpower. >> and that is where she goes to be a cold warrior. >> she helped to draw in, what we then called the third world countries. we were the new world and what better representation of the new world than the 33-year-old, young, fresh woman, with these youthful fashions. >> and the people in paris, she wore givenchy. >> last week, eisenhower -- they set trends across the country and people were emulating her. and it was a couple of years before they were putting the bags in their hair. >> you could get them on ebay, probably. >> we were talking about the ike sundress.

this is not something that she would wear. this was an upping of the level of the style. she picked oleg cassini because he was american, he had european ties and hollywood ties, but he said, i will create a wardrobe for you on the world stage. >> she said, i want us to dress as if jack was president of france. the way that this happened worked better in public. >> how did the american public respond? >> by and large, they love that. but sometimes she would show up and up bathing suit, and sometimes you had conservatives who said, a first lady should not do that and if you think of the previous three first -- three first ladies -- they were not and they were in their 60s when they left office. they had grandchildren in some

instances, and she seems like everyone's older sister rather than their aunt or their grandmother. >> let's take a call next, from judy, in newport news. >> we are really enjoying it, thank you so much. it seems to me i have heard her name pronounced as jaqueline. is this true? >> she preferred to be called jackie, which she hated. and she says in the oral history without the combination of jack and jackie was unfortunate. >> anthony in chicago. >> how are you doing today? >> what is your question? >> we are going to this in my

high school class right now, as you all know, there was a film if i'm pronouncing his name right -- we were looking at this in class, this was graphic and horrifying, of course, but i was wondering, when he was shot -- was jacqueline kennedy trying to jump out of the car in that video, or was this just trying -- >> what year in high school? >> i am a junior. >> the answer, we don't know why. she was asked about that in the she did not remember, she was deeply in shock. >> would you show this in high school class? >> like the explosion of the challenger, i have not watched this, this is too painful and i

would not show this to students. >> but this is widely available on the internet. >> is it helpful to talk about this in the classroom weather is a guided discussion? >> this would be a line i would be a line i would have to draw and i have to set out -- i would have to say i remembered that, being taken off to church -- the president had been wounded, and to be told at the end of the day, he had died and we said our last prayer of the day for him. i would have to step back to my scholarly side, -- scholarly side in the human. >> what would you think about the documentaries this month -- would she have the quote, i want them to see what they did. >> there is always the hazard in talking about a historical figure and what they may or may

not have done. she was so worried that jack would be forgotten in 1962. she was asking to her friends and others, please don't let them forget jack. she did not approve of everything that was being shown, but this was a sign that he was not being forgotten. >> and the camelot label has remained. >> the young caller talked about her influence on the arts. and there is the kennedy library. and the trips she took to india and pakistan in 1962 along with her sister. let's watch that and then talk about her international travel. >> i am profoundly impressed with what you do in pakistan. and what you make of it now -- i

think as i stand in these gardens, which were built before my country was born, they have survived this together and they always will. >> the interesting thing -- we were talking about the images of her in black-and-white, and here she is in color. >> this was the presidency and the president, who was aware of the importance of color photography, he was talking about plans for the 1964 democratic convention and said, i want to have a motion picture about the administration in color. one lucky thing for us, is the agency -- we have a color film that was very rare for the time. >> how many international trips did she take? >> this was by herself with her

sister, but not with the president. it would be viewed as unofficial and we could talk about the canadian trip, her first trip out of the country, and in paris in june of 1961. they made several trips south of the border and went to puerto rico and colombia, and venezuela, and costa rica. where else have they gone? >> she felt it was not her duty to travel to mystically. >> she tended to travel by herself or with the family for vacations. >> she knew how important it was for her to go with him. >> how important was this to advancing foreign-policy? >> i think that for jackie to get the receptions like the kind that they did in 19 61, or when they went to vienna, this was 10

times -- the leader of the soviet union, nikita khrushchev, this was the time when the united states was trying to make the point that they were a rising power and the third world countries should align with us. >> next is dennis in brooklyn. you are on the air. >> thank you, susan, and thank you for the program. we have mentioned that mrs. kennedy had a big influence on the arts, style and culture. i am curious with how she finished that ulysses quote earlier during the campaign -- she was incredibly well read, was this her education or her upbringing, that fueled her intelligence? >> it was both. she talked about, an

autobiographical essay that she had done in 1951 -- she talked about her upbringing and said that she was a tomboy who like to go horseback riding, but she also like to be by herself and sit in a room, reading little lord fauntleroy, and she loved to read, with the european cast and she was an avid reader, much like her husband, but she tended to read literature and he would read history. and she had a superb background in education, both from prep school years as well as going through -- with her junior year abroad in paris, and finishing up the george washington university. a handful of first ladies at that time had an undergraduate degree. >> sometimes it is forgotten, her influence on historic preservation. now, we take it as a given, if there is a beautiful historic building, there better be a good

reason to take that down. but years ago that was not the case, when the term urban or newly is used. if john kennedy in particular and jackie kennedy as first lady had not been the first lady in the 1960s -- the executive office building next to the white house would have been torn down, which white eisenhower was willing to do. he thought that this was an eyesore. part of the white house would be torn down. >> dolley madison -- the white house was lit up -- >> it would have been replaced by federal office buildings of the time -- a penitentiary and a prison yard. this really helped the historic preservation -- >> in the book you quote aldrich >> this was her schoolmate at

miss porter's school. >> she wrote that mrs. kennedy designed her mission of first lady along the following lines. do you remember this? >> preservation of family, entertaining with style and grace in the number one house in the world, the makeover of the white house itself and the raising of the cultural stature of this country. >> wasn't that amazing that she wrote that before going into the white house. she already had a firm sense -- family and children first. everyone would hope that would be the case but she already had a mission statement before she began as the first lady. >> the next clip is from an interview that was done about raising children in the white house. >> it is rather hard with

children. there is so little privacy. i don't mind for myself -- but i think it is hard with them, i wanted to take my daughter to the circus last week and decided, i just shouldn't because that would ruin it for her. i worked so hard to make a little ballet school a private thing we can do together and there were a number of photographers when we got there. >> do you think caroline, who is older than john junior, has she changed much from the attention she has gotten? >> she is still too little but someday she is going to have to go to school, and if she is always in the papers, that will affect her classmates and they will treat her differently. we are always treating her the same, but this is about how other people treat her, because they have read about her. >> many of you talk about the

school that they created in the white house. how was this created, what the goal was and how the public received this. >> we heard about that right here, she was worried about caroline, who, when her family with her father became president, she would have been three years old. she felt it may be normal if -- more normal for her, if she went to school at the white house solarium, that room on the top of the white house. they had other kids about the same age, children of other members of the administration. and at the time of the assassination -- this was 1963, one thing that lbj did do, he said the school can go on to the end of the semester. >> but there was a controversy, all the children worldwide. >>

there was a photograph that shows the class picture, of caroline and her schoolmates, and there is one african- american boy, i think he was the son of andrew hatcher, but they were receiving -- >> the president came over to address them by name -- you must have been told that i was the one with the blue pin. >> the african-american student. >> there was the height of concern over integration and people were riding into the white house and asking, are there any, they would say, negro childen in the class and they had to say this was a private school, not a public school, which would be -- which would have to follow the brown versus board of education edict. >> we have more on the candy

administration -- with the presidential history happening for the first lady. the creation of the peace corps, the advancement of the space program, and the cuban missile crisis. the introduction of civil rights legislation, sending military advisers, increasing the number of military advisers -- do you want to comment on those in particular, and the historical relevance of the administration? >> one thing is, how much did he engage with the controversial issues of his time. domestically and with civil rights -- john kennedy had two and a half years and after that he had the first big civil rights bill before congress to say that they should be integrated. domestically, the cold war, the

cuban missile crisis. some elements of what he did lead to the cuban missile crisis. the moment it happened i want john kennedy as my president, because this did not result in the deaths of 48 million americans, which could have happened. these are as vital today as they would have been at the time. >> he said the term, fiasco, the failure to remove castro. but because president kennedy made a press conference and said, i am the responsible officer of this government -- his approval ratings went up to 83%. >> and also, when the soviet missiles went into cuba, the joint chiefs said it -- you won't taking much of a risk, he knew to be skeptical of them in a way that he was not at the time. >> and he refashioned his entire administrative procedure by

making these kinds of decisions. >> andrew, from south carolina. you are on. >> thank you for having me on. i was wondering how -- what was her astrological sign and how this shape our world view. >> she was interested in astrological. >> she was born on july 28, 1929. i think that this is leo. my wife was born on the same day. >> where is the woman who came to see them -- with the astrological signs of the entire kennedy family? listening to her in these videos, regina wants to know,

did they speak with the same pauses in normal conversations as what they show on television. .a what they show on television. >> he did not. i think she never expressed herself on this. some people commented that in public, she spoke in a way that was very careful, sometimes a little bit stilted, and there explanation is that she had in her mind the way a first lady should look and act, and the way a first lady should sound, which is different from how she sounded off duty. >> but her mother and sister also had that. there is a label, called -- this is for the oyster bay area of long island. but this is what she said to me. we all spoke that way, with the lock job. this is exactly what michael

said and the other part is the whispery part of that. her dad had said this was a way to attract men. i always look at the photographs of mrs. kennedy in conversation with powerful men and foreign dignitaries, and oftentimes she is very close to them, with a strapless gown, just tucked up under their arms, and i have the sense that she is using that voice and she just enveloped -- even as a teenager, she would speak to a young man, you will really brought into her orbit. clearly, this worked. >> when she wrote letters, she wrote some of the best letters, romantic, almost overdoing it, saying how wonderful someone was, this was one of the best evenings of my life when maybe it had not been. people were so

charmed by these things that they felt they were much closer. >> next is craig, in omaha. >> thank you for your call. what is on your mind? >> i love your book, for starters. i own a 1962 kennedy board game. my question is, how did she feel about her image, being put out like that? >> a kennedy board game. i was given a deck of cards by a student of mine who had all of the kennedy family on the faces of the cards. i doubt she would be pleased with that, but she had to know that these things were happening, and she had approved a paper doll collection that would have shown caroline as a paper doll dressed up like a first lady.

>> this was from the political advisers in the west wing, she barely tolerated things like this. she thought they were other and she hated it when it involved her children. the best-selling record of that time -- in history, von meter, imitating jfk. she was outraged that there would be an actress playing her. >> we are in the height of the mad men era. the creation of the political campaigns that came from madison avenue. she had to recognize the political value in all of this. >> many of the pictures -- that we most treasure of jfk and those children -- you may notice that there is no jackie. these were taken when she was oftentimes out of the country and not in a position to object when they said, get the photographers in.

>> that is a nice segue. i want to talk to both the you about the relationship tween the press and the kennedy administration, and how jacqueline kennedy interfaced with the press. when you look back at those times, people talk about the fitness of the press corps. the relationship between the washington post editors, and the kennedy administration. how does this look to you now? >> much more genteel in almost every respect about private lives. kennedy thought that the press was at his throat all the time, but compared to nowadays, it looks extremely different. the attitude was at the beginning of the administration she said -- your policy with the press should be giving out minimal information with maximum

politeness. >> we show a picture of jacqueline, with ben bradley, and his arm is around her. you look at how close that relationship was, and what is at stake. >> you may notice that the original picture showed a little bit more of her legs, and she was so close to bradley -- they moved her hand in a little bit so the dress was a little bit longer and more like a first lady. the other thing -- upstairs in the white house -- this is very different than how it may have >> the bradleys were neighbors. he went on to be the editor of the washington post and people know him from watergate. but he was also the editor of newsweek at that time. he had been the neighbor of the kennedys along with his wife emma so they were good friends and they continue that

friendship. some of those people for videos that were taken in those last weeks at the northern virginia home right before the assassination are with the bradlees and they were brought in in the afternoon of the assassination to be with the children and they went out to be with jackie. >> does it serve the public well? >> i'm sure not. >> the president did not talk to him for about six months. >> likewise, mrs. kennedy dropped him from her friendship when he wrote "conversations with kennedy" and she thought it was an invasion of privacy. they were thin skinned. >> robert from plano, texas, hi, robert. guest: how are you doing? i'm interested in the relationship between christine onassis and jackie onassis. i heard she was deceased and i want you to expound a little bit

on their relationship. what was it like? >> there aren't great source on that as historians. we have to stick with things we can talk about that with certainty. i don't know if you want to come in on this -- >> i would say it's pretty obvious they had a fight over the onassis will and that mrs. kennedy at that time, mrs. onassis did fight to get more money from the family and that she was successful in doing that. so there's no love loss between the two of them, probably. the . she was successful in doing that one. there was no love loss. two-hourur left in the look in her life and her ccomplishments and role of the first lady. how the alked about press interfaced and how they been gentler, there

are two issues we could talk about. first, his health. there are severities for his addison's e and disease. he sufferede rumors from addison's disease, which he did. > rumors spread by lyndon johnson and others. >> there was an effort from his entourage saying he did not suffer from the classic kind of addison's disease. that what was done. years, we've gotten access to the medical records howing he suffers from all sorts of things, bad stomach, bad back, all sorts of things. medications. you can look at it one way or the other. you can say this is a terrible cover-up. we should have known. probably we should have. at the same time, if you're rying to evaluate what the man was made of, to go through all f that, the brother was that

jack kennedy went through half days on earth in intense physical pain. probably true. > frankly had the last rites said over him before dallas in 1963. > talk about when he has experimental surgery on his young back. she's a young wife attending to him. fewo difficult in the first year years. planned against the bulkhead of 1509 and the midst and he believes in consulting with caused the deterioration of the lumbar. so in the early part of their '54, he has this experimental fusion attempt to

be made of the lumbar region. they place a metal plate in his -- he suffers st a terrible infection that almost kills him. disease.ison's the wound won't heal. new wife in y, a her early 20s. palm beachhim in the and she had to dress the gaping wound. he goes back under the knife a few months later. they have a slightly more successful surgery. but he suffers periodic bouts of severe back pain for the rest of his life. her to be skeptical of doctors, one of the most is that in ngs parkland hospital in dallas when the doctors were working on him shooting, the doctors and the nurses said you can't come in here. said, i'm id, and she going to be there when he dies.

the reason was when she went 1954, she s in remembered how the doctors said even n't be near him, though she heard him calling for her. >> ted in ft. lauderdale, florida. hi, ted, you're on. >> thank you. cute story. she would watch and she would garbo, i don't want to use the word stalk, never looking at her, just gretad saying oh, there's garbo. one might know and admire. garbo. new greta

>> she did? >> greta garbo came to the white for dinner and they had known greta garbo in europe. he spent some time with her. o j.f.k. played a practical joke which is it's going to fall all over greta. ms. garbo, please pretend you haven't met them in your life. garbo comes into the room. begins to talk to greta and greta says, i've never my life. an before in >> prep school pranksters. unfinished his book, life that i want to introduce topic.her that's kennedy's womanizing. affairs with several press ncluding jackie's myer.ary, mary pinchot

two playfully dubbed fiddle and slender d a tall beautiful 19-year-old white house intern. how much did the press know report?is and not >> you know, ben bradley who i ad talked to with great length insists he did not know -- did not know about his own ister-in-law being involved with jfk. so i think in retrospect, the feeling that this was better known or better documented than it may have been at the time. >> the womanizer known as a senator in washington. he was well aware of this reputation as they were dating. mrs. o you know about kennedy's knowledge after it continues after the marriage, if felt about it. >> bless her heart, she kept her

counsel on this most of the time. he didn't write a memoir or go on oprah or -- she kept her counsel. we think that she may have a couple of times let out in in french both instances when she made a reference to someone who might affair with her husband in private. one could only speculate about what that was like in the marriage and what tension it must have brought to the especially the early marriage when they were having the medical problems and she was aving trouble with her pregnancies as well. >> a question for both of you, knowing now back what we know about the tensions in their marriages and the was enges they face, what the relationship like? how strong a marriage does this seem with your documentary evidence? >> i think it was a real relationship. and probably perhaps happiest at the very end. she certainly says that our

the whiteears were in house. i think that was true. that theyhat, suggest lost a son patrick and others in lot closer.ame a for instance, you see them hands.g on the last day of his life in a way you have not seen before. kiss babies or kiss me or hold my hand. the lovely photograph that you showed of her touching his cheek and she said, i wanted to say, oh, jack, what a day. speaks volumes. as they came out of the hospital fter patrick passed away after two days, he is holding her hand as they come out in front of photographers. when they take the helicopter ack to hyannis and they come down the steps, he's helping her.

caesarean through the section and a week later, he's the steps. come down bradley says on the tenth '63,versary of september of she thought he saw them closer than ever. when they came together at anniversary, he said he had never seen her greet warmly. >> for all of the reasons she was distraught and devastated hat happened on the 22nd of november was that much worse. because if you assume there was or warmth in that marriage and suddenly this happens, you can imagine what's going through her head. >> how much of the 1,000 days did she spend away from the white house travelling? >> i don't have a number. she did, for instance, go to italy in the summer of 1962 with her sister and her daughter. >> did she intentionally get out of washington? >> oh, yeah, for instance -- an glenora and d

middleburg, virginia where she rode horses. she felt particularly with the children, the more she could get way from the white house and press attention, the better it would be for them and her. >> the camelot imagery. the presidency to be remembered to be discussed. was this an effort on their part to hide their issues? >> i think not specifically in sense. but it was her effort to get people to look at that period yearsh that frame and for it was successful. >> her time in the white house, things we should talk about which have contributions, entertaining and the arts, what did she do on this level to introduce to public to aspects culture that perhaps they have not seen before. >> you mentioned entertainment. i counted up 16 state dinners and only the 1,032

days they were in the white house and compared, for example, to george bush 43. i think they had a half dozen or so in eight years. 9/11 security issues. and george bush didn't happen to entertain that way. kennedys loved it. they would have the third world draw them in.nd the arts are part of that entertain. --we could have >> big band music. >> right. --roy rogers or >> military or marshall music or -- . the kennedys had ballet >> and opera. and the fine arts, she had her committee bringing paintings, attracting paintings to the white house. i was going to say that's my favorite story. the mona lisa coming to washington to new york and the picture of standing in front of pinkhe gorgeous strap less

gown with the arm tucked under minister of france is priceless. >> she saw things and knew those things could be important, which she saw in the four days of 1963.ber of but if you see the way a president nowadays receives a tate vitz tore, that's all she's doing. duringizen hour and the predecessors, if you had a state dinner in the state dining room, there would be a big table in the shape of an e. and the president and first lady and the visitors would be at the long side. t was formal and military looking. through her idea you should have encouraged that conversation and a pageant on the south grounds with back to s that harken the revolutionary period. repainted orce one, with the design now adays. looking t the airport,

he way it does with americandy diploma diplomacy. >> you can greet the foreign ceremony.nd make it a it would be union station or national airport. >> jessica is in pennsylvania. hi, jessica. >> hi. thank you for the series. it's so much fun. i'm curious now since she's so regular id she have a exercise regimen. like?as her diet >> she certainly walked a lot. around the walk white house grounds. but her favorite sport was equestri equestrian. she was a very good equestrian. her mother spent a year in the college in virginia where they taught for 21 years. >> suddenly put it in. much.nk you very i thought it did too. so she would actually go to sweet briar after the white house years and she would train with the equestrian coach there,

cronan. practically by the time she feels walking, she was in the saddle. way to get out, get fresh air. you can tell by her physique, she watched her diet, ate carefully, exercised well. smoker. as also a >> she was a smoker. that was something that was very well hidden. ae would put the cigarette in holder which would not be the most healthful thing. she also water skied. there's one skit where john kennedy caught john glenn, the stronaut is called to hyannis port for the grave mission. they said get down to the dock, ut on your skis, jackie is waiting. >> and there's a butler holding water skis. pulledk caroline out and her up on the skis with her.

ow dare you put your child in danger that way. >> we talked about the white house frustration. the truman administration gutted the white house, the trumans, and completely restored the framework and architectural integrity. what did they do? harry happened under truman was for structural in ons we saw two weeks ago your excellent series, the white and a ad to be gutted steel super structure put inside eight inches away from the outer walls, that's what's there now adays. it turned out to be so expensive there was not much money left to buy furniture. truman made a great deal and in bulk for a good price. ackie got there after the election of 1916, shown to it by eisenhower. she was aghast. she said it looked like a statler hotel which she did not ean was a compliment, meaning

not very convincing reproductions. so the mother of two, with other about, took on this enormous project of raising huge amount of money and also getting donations of furniture, art, artifacts. she wanted the white house to be equivalent to great house in europe. they wanted foreign leaders to the white house and have a place that looked like a hotel. it was threadbare and reproductions, it cast a bad light on the united states. white like the way the house looks now adays, we should thank jackie kennedy. folks in the white house -- >> i am a trustee. >> we should say that. but it was created during this time. by her. >> what is the story of the creation? the helps her to restore white house in a quiet furniture and artifactings.

the thing she was most concerned about was she was worried that she feels no longer first lady, not be first lady may so interested in history and curio shops line of somewhere and decide to redecorate, perhaps, in the style of the late 1940s or something that was more contemporary. a whiteght if there was house historical association, that would be one work that first revent future turning it backwards which is a great museum. >> two branchs of government, so very quickly, congress establishes its own historical society and the supreme court did about ten years later. >> looking at -- about to look photograph with the press conference with the announcement outhe white house that came at that time, folks at the white house historical association tell us it's still in print. and since the debut in 1962, 4.5 have n books of the books

been sold. --they did >> you'd like to have a number like that? maybe not -- >> the book is in a class of its own, should be. 1940, she went to the white house as a 10 or 11-year-old girl and she was disappointed there was not a guide book. >> nothing to take away, she said. >> she said that was important. she said that could generate income to help with the restoration. that guide book is reviseded, reviseded, reviseded. as you suggested until today. >> that's a great story too that he had a curator at the time was writing the text for it. jackie didn't like the way it was coming out. >> it was going slowly. >> it was. >> she went to arthur sleszinger. she went to him and said will text.elp with the she had the harvard historian in the end write the text.

>> the televised tour of the white house when the project was completed and was a p.r. bonanza. >> televised. by then on abc or coming on-line then. she goes throughout the white house. remember, we're talking about 0% of house holds having televisionings. even though it's black and white see the bright red dress on valentine's day. and today's standards, it's a bit stilted, people fell in love with it. there were 56 million viewers. viewers of four watched it. one little boy wrote to her and said i really like this. my dad was going to watch maverick, a western at the time. to watching in this. he received a fan letter from

barbara bush. it went behind the iron curtain, 126 countries around the world. she won a special emmy for it. it was a real high point for the first lady. deserved it. >> he couldn't believe what he was seeing. here we have my wife raising money, buying art and artifacts and furniture. interesting to us. but for most americans, this is going to seem very different from the way of living. it had exactly the opposite impact. it made people love this project that you take on. >> at the end. so he comes in and does a little he talksvignette where about the important of the united states and -- >> one of the worst performances. >> stilted -- >> one of her friends thought ll thought it was so great, i cried when i watched jackie's performance.

cried when , yes, i i saw my performance too. >> if you've been watching, you have a robust website. all of the first ladies where all of the videos of the programs are archived. ut also, a number of other videos are there. each week, a special item you can see for the first lady being featured. the special emmy for the white house tour. >> in this section, i do want to mention the first lady's book that you can find there. biographiese to the of every first lady, available at cost. interested in the souvenir of the series or learning more of the history of he women we've been profiling all year, a link there that you can find it. it's $12.95 or something along that line. take a call. >> this is katie. she's watching us in san francisco. hi, katie. >> thanks for the program.

it every enjoying week. i -- i wrote my thesis about aclyn kennedy and her support of the fine arts and i was wondering if you could talk a ittle bit about jackie's relationship with andrew millwell and how the american liked actually -- if they that relationship with him being a frenchman. and how he helps with the white house restoration. >> i don't know if he had a direct impact. >> the truth and the -- follow.s to certainly bringing the mona lisa, it was. history, michael might want to speak to this, i thought she was a bit more seemed of him than she to indicate in the oral history. but she talks about the sadness that he had experienced when she paris h him in 1961 in that he and his wife had lost wo sons in a tragic car accident. here he feels meeting with her under the tragic circumstances.

she admired him for that. to bemired his literature sure she definitely admired him. > as we close out the discussion of the white house, gary robertson wants to know jackie say she's most proud of in her role as first lady? >> she said in her oral history, i think, or perhaps in a letter later on, she said she was proud of the restoration and she probably wouldn't have used the word proud because she probably of the ve said one things i did that i felt was most important. he other she said is something that gets no attention she said at the time. it's very important egyptian historic fight that was temples that were in danger of that eroded by the nile she worked with jfk to get money to congress to save and did.

the kwipgs government would have been nazr at the time said all right, thank you, mrs. kennedy. of ours end something to the united states states and t was a temple that she hoped would be built in washington finally wound up but at the metropolitan museum in fifth avenue in new york, she saw it every morning, it was right outside her bedroom window and the apartment she lived in. central station too. >> not the first lady. >> exactly. the pressure later in life, would those have been some of the things she would be proud of. she would have used that term, no doubt. >> she through a very strict line. she felt that the things that happened when her husband was president, every one of the american people and others were felt things she that happened before and after, they weren't. >> jaclyn bouvier, we want to bit about her early biography and the interest she developed as a young woman

that she brought to the white house. to start that discussion, we're going to return to the kennedy more about her early years as a writer. > from a young age, jaclyn bouvier loved to write. she would create poems as gifts parents on christmas and birthdays. two early examples here from when she was 10 years old. in connecticut where she went to a real ool, she wrote wonderful else say called "be kind and do your share." be kind and do your share. that's all there is to it. she goes on how helping others in life is so important and how asy it is for us to say a kind word to someone. and all the difference you can person. the the scrapbook is called one graduating er after from school. jackie's parents, her mother and

stepfather, jackie and sister summer through europe. and as a token of appreciation for that gift, they collaborated on the scrapbook to give to let them know o what the adventures were. snapshotmbination of a they took, handwritten descriptions of the different vitzed, the people hey met and the whimsical sketches done by jackie. in the fall of 1950, jaclyn vogue's very ed well known writing contest. and we have her handwritten application as a student from george washington university. she won the contest and her two winning essays, one was a self-portrait. she's wonderfully described 5'7", brown all, hair, square face and eyes so that it tely far apart

takes three weeks to have a pair with a bridge wide enough to fit over my nose. the love of writing and the power of words, she's asked in question three of the essay, who are three people in history you wished you had known. mentions are she charles, the french poet and author.ilde, the in addition to that, serge dee yeah go. s, she feels 1950 the camera girl for "the washington times" herald. on display here at the camera, she used as she went through the streets of washington interviewing different people, asking questions, and creating columns. one column we have on display here is somewhat prophetic vice e she's interviewed president nixon and john f. kennedy who are adversaries in presidential campaign.

all of the examples of the early writings, and she did write throughout her life, but i think if her life had been somewhat different, she would have been a writer of some kind, maybe even professionally. as we know in her later life, her life, she f feels a very prolific editor of books in new york city working with several different authors books of several topics. and when? she born to >> she was born in the hamptons. er parents were john and janet bouvier. he had been an investment banker street, but lost his savings in the stock market crash. summer withinued to her grandfather, bouvier. she called grafrpy jack. one that the introduced her to reading and literature at such a young age.

dearly.d him she would write poetry and mem rise poetry together. er mother was a strict disciplinarian. but both sisters, leigh and home. grow up in a broken her parents separate when jackie is seven and divorce when she's 12. divorce.acrimonious the father was a womanizer and alcoholic. >> black jack. also the name of the horse. had some insecure childhood. the interesting thing is you look at her, didn't know any of this. thought you would have the good years. so short on s would not worried he be able to pay the tuition at the end of the term and she leave.have to so she feels able to talk about

the strength of will came from. this is someone who will live in the way that's much more than 99% of human beings. nd at the same time, had its difficulties. >> indeed. extent for the wealth in the back of her family is important to understand what she that she the role played. so where did the family's money come from? >> her father's family money -- her father's family had been in finance. family money that was lost. oney, her father, her mother married an affluent man. ut he was not in the business of endowing the new wife to his two chirp. jackie took on that job we're just hearing about with the inquiring photographer. salary. ed the >> she liked to work. >> indeed. >> the family to wa, so how did that affect the exposure when to this city and how did she

develop an affinity for this place? >> michael mentioned she made her first trip to the white house when she feels a preadolescent, 11, 12 years old. mother is because her coming to date. that is to washington, d.c. after they married him in the marywood, y lived at the northern united states. >> all republican. families.publican they summered at the farm. hat's her introduction to the culture of washington. jackie kennedy says the first trip at that time to the when sheart gallery is fell in love with art and the wonderful feeling it gave her to sculpture. d >> he may not have wanted to support her on this. establish from everything i read this is a life of privilege. huge estate in a mclean, virginia and also in

newport. she was always sort of the poor relation. not making the argument that she hardship given the way most of human kind did live and does live now. but this is someone who felt there were challenges. > she didn't know what her future would be in terms of money except to marry well. >> true. >> to that point -- how much of the attraction with john kennedy family wast that his very, very wealthy. >> it has to be some of the attraction certainly. and it appears that wasn't love at first sight. chemistry asn't immediately. because when they were first introduced the same as dinner party by the charlie bartels in 1951, there were no sparks, really. he seemed to want to ask her out. but supposedly when he went out her, there was another beau waiting for her. another male friend waiting for her. stopped short and it took

to get year for them together in the bartlet. >>e will said i thought of first timeu from the i met you. he said how big of you. a typical jackie comment. >> what was the age difference between the two? >> he was born in 1917, she in 1929. >> 12 years. >> 12 years. > and the -- they met several times for it. >> she first met him on a train and she wrote about it. she said this congressman with reddish brown hair i met on the train. i don't think she ever heard of him. although it was by then in ongress and written a bestselling book and had a father joseph kennedy who had famous ambassador to england. that was not his world. apparently. ember hermione? >> caller: hello. i have a question about mrs.

kennedy. what were her favorite hobbies? what did she like to do in her spare time? >> thank you. we have another student watching tonight. can you tell us about yourself? >> caller: i'm 12 years old. >> doing wonderful with 12-year-olds tonight. thank you for calling. >> caller: i love history and i watching channels like this and learning new things every time i turn on the tv. this aw this -- i saw channel and i decided to ask a love history.se i >> terrific. >> the city had a table full of people who loved history tonight too. glad to have you in the fold. too. love chicago particularly glad to talk to you from chicago. years perfect to be 12 old, the same age as jaclyn bouvier when she went to the white house. >> the question was her hobbies. >> we mentioned horseback writing from the time she was

able to walk. they put her in a saddle and equestrian in an competition. her mother was also a rider. canine as ll things well. movies in kennedy and pictures, you see her with dogs, she loved to show dogs, lots of competition, lots of dogs around this ema all the time in the white house. the president was allergic to cats, doggings, and horses. quiet,ed, as we say, the solitude of reading, writing poetry, drawing. and art. say those are all her hobbies. she started even younger than hobbies. those >> introduction to john kennedy, japanese viewers. nship was the relatio between the kennedy siblingings and siblings in law. how did she get along with the kennedy family? >> at first, i think she found it hard. a ticularly glad to have japanese questioner given the fact that caroline kennedy is tokyo as o to

president obama's ambassador to japan. was to a great degree, an introvert. and she was not a huge extrovert. and the gre gary yous extroverted family, she felt it ook a while to get used to that. >> future sister-in-laws didn't like the depp tant way of speaking. >> she calls them the raw-raw girls. > they were out playing touch football. she would have preferred to sit book. veranda and read a >> one more bit of video. this is from a tv interview -- francis ene fran talking about her life as the young wife of a senator. married to a ng senate with being a doctor's wife. a senator must be on call at all times. you don't know what time he's coming home to dinner some of

time. can you tell us about some of the things that you have do? is nice to be married to a doctor. goy have such late hours and away at a moment's notice. >> you are alone a good deal of a time. >> are you active in any political way? or is your job big enough taking care of jack. don't blame you. >> do you fix breakfast for him? >> yes. >> what does he do? does he tell you what goes on? out the ves and runs door.

>> lovely child. >> goes after it sometimes. >> i do, all the time. >> and enjoy it, i'm sure. >> oh -- what should we take away from this and how she's describing the early days of marriage. >> i think it's so fascinating. it's april of '57. 1957, they had their first child, caroline. i guarantee you if they did that scene a year later, they would not be posing with a dog. > was that relationship easy from the beginning? or was it tough getting adjusted travels being on the road campaigning? >> it was very tough. the medical problems she had with the child bearing, we had with the back ailments. he was gone so often. they tried hickory hills, the robert kennedy homestead. a lot of the children living there. but jackie and jack bought that.

she began to have the miscarriages and stillborn painful. it was too so they -- they moved back into town. really didn't -- not have their own home they bought any wned and stayed in for time until 1957 until caroline's birth on m street and georgetown. >> one of the facts she thought hill, which is across the river in the -- there.h, it was already in fact, it had been owned by general mcclellan, i believe, in the civil war. the mansion had been here in hickory hill. >> associate with -- >> jack and jackie sold it to bobby after they realized they were not going to be able to fill it with children. she had spent all of her time in it only to rating lose the children and with the nursery and with special shelves have ck so they wouldn't to bend over or reach too high. it became a sad symbol.

isolated there. at least if they were in georgetown when they first rented a home, when they were first married, she could go back and forth to capitol hill, take him lunch. isolated completely there that they left. to facebook viewer wants know is there any known medical condition for all of her problem pregnant pregnant -- pregnancies. > smoking, we think it could have been. there were several packs a day. that, of course, if it didn't the problems with the actual pregnancies herself, the lung conditions with some of her children were born with, john jr. and patrick who succumbed to it. they think also the president's -- his medical onditions, perhaps even stds could have led to problems with pregnancy. murdock on twitter. did jackie share john's drive to ecome president or was she comfortable as a senator's wife? >> i think she was comfortable as a senator's wife.

threatened with the otion she would become first lady. to f.d.r. , i spoke jr., a friend of both of them, e said that jackie essentially panicked after jack won the presidency in 1960. she was terrified of it. she was worried about the adverse effects on their family life for him to be president and first lady.e jfk said to fdr jr. -- please tell her it's and not going be that bad. she did. minutes left.0 e to g post white house lif cover. we'll start off with a 1964 video clip, a film clip in those days. and this is a message to the the condolence messages that came into the white house. >> i want to take this

pportunity to express my appreciation to the hundreds of thousands of messages, nearly my chirp all which nd -- my children and i have receive in the past few weeks. the affection that my husband had of all of you has sustained me. and it's something i shall never forget. lights gone ight from the world. ll of you who have written to me, you all know how much you loved him. he returned that love in full measure. it is my greatest wish that all f these letters be acknowledged. it will take a long time to do so. but i know you will understand. future generations will know how uch my country and future

generations said of him. and in boston, massachusetts. >> she talks about the establishment of the library. so can you both talk about what jaclyn kennedy did to preserve legacy of john kennedy's presidency? library.art with the jfk really about a month before assassination went to harvard, saw a football game against columbia. also looked at what was going to be decided, his presidential ibrary on the boston side of the charles across the river harvard.t of so she very quickly began talking to his friends and heir to what kind of exhibits should be in the library. she started raising money for it. she also began thinking about who should be the architect. most people would have found architect like

edward dural stone here in washington known for doing government buildings in many cases and my views of surpassing ugliness and massiveness. she chose one that was famous now. but at that point, was very little known. she thought he was very much spirit of jfk who was young and not that well known himself. architects.of he had been friends with charles wernike and dated for a while. her with the saving of lafayette square and put up brick buildings for lafayette square. designed the grave site. she worked hard with him as well. after much discussion chose him. also, given jaclyn kennedy's interest in chemistry and

scholarship, i find it intriguing that it's still under wraps. i understand her possible interest in protecting her children but i find the date far to the future a bit extreme. >> she had a great interest in in ory and a great interest privacy. when caroline kennedy was thinking about whether this oral i worked on and should n talking about be opened, she did not have a iece of paper that says it should be closed for 100 years which some people thought she the side of rr on these things should be closed for longer time rather than a shorter time. and from my experience, we're talk about this a little bit political program, of leaders and their families tend o overdo it and keeping things closed. i think things can be sensitive damaging sometimes should be open earlier.

horrified that his tapes were opened given some of shock of ge and the many of the conversations that he thinks sort of showed him as an uncouth back woodsman and to think ricans they're so cool. >> they have released the 1962 te 2012 anniversary of the whi house tour. they have begun to release mrs. they relate ers as to the registration. interested, arthur sleszinger's papers are a wonderful cache of mrs. kennedy's papers. historian.n we save everything from alphabetical order. >> first lady in the east wing. >> dan is watching in san diego. hi, dan, what's your question.

quick comment and a question. the comment in this period didn't understand how important the zapruder film or it showing it in the high school as a 40-year high school history teacher, i can tell you that students in high school, this is probably i think they associate this young president to being in their lives also as a young man. i know students did in that time and since then, it's been that such a young feels dynamic man. the question is -- and the ideotapes showed it at the library, what is the relationship with the nixons? pat r president nixon or nixon and mrs. kennedy after she left the white house? thank you, again, for a great series. >> the relationship is better than one might think. appalling edy found the idea that she would have to return to the white house after 1963. she thought it would be much too painful. told the secret service agents

in washington prior to the way i will never have to see the white house because it will make me i'll start crying again. andexception, 1970-'71, her j.f.k.'s portraits were painted by an artist. they were about to be displayed in the nixon white house. the nixons said why don't you come down and see them quietly. she felt she owed it to jfk to do that. so she brought her children. totally off of the record visit. they had dinner and she wrote to president nixon afterwards. had aid, a moment that i white house e dreaded turned out to be one of the most important days. n later years, not too happy with nixon. in watergate, came out the number of things that president tried to do to damage the reputation. > 1968, brother-in-law robert

kennedy assassinated -- the two were close, as i understand it. goodness she feelsn't in los angeles or -- >> i didn't say it literally. had to go through that yet again. they had been close. was she about d security for herself and ore children. > terribly concerned after that. and she supposedly says they're killing kennedy, my children next. be and so once again financial security and physical security became so important to her. and surely that's part of the onassis.n to mr. >> four months after rfk's she married when aristotle onassis. jaclyn happened to kennedy's image? >> many people were outraged. outraged she would marry anyone at all, whether it married rnal widow but to someone who was this much holder, not an american.

some of his financial activities. sof one person says she had gone calaban.nce charming to >> you know it's a happy relationship? >> something her sister said not too many years ago, someone have been could she attracted to such a man after being married to jack kennedy. by the sister said -- way, who had a romance with him sister. her >> meaning onassis. >> yes, not her brother-in-law. he was really , quite charismatic. she said the way he look moved and looked, and he may not have been a typical gq representation of a beautiful, attractive man, she said he was. nd jackie liked all things greek. mythology.reek she found great comfort in the

greece.poets of she introduced brother-in-law robert to. she wasn't say attractive to her at all. the money and the fizz kpal out, she she pointed had her own island. >> how long did the marriage la sns. >> '68 to '75. estranged. omewhat >> until january of '73 when son died onassis eason in an accident. >> she came back to new york city? >> she did. many people did not expect her to do, she went to work and got a job. an editor, later on, a double dais. and this was not someone who was here for show business and acquiring books, she actually edited with great intensity. her authors were hugely loyal to her. and so for the last years of her accounts, she was actually in certain ways is

happier than perhaps often she had been in life. and plus she had a relationship man, maurice templesman who i think this was the relationship was equal. very different from certainly her second marriage and perhaps her first. >> how close did she remain with her two children during this time? withry close, always close them. always so proud of them. and i think her brother-in-law senator edward kennedy talks about how when ever she would peak of them, her face would light up. >> she looked through so much of her mind that her husband had been very close to the british prime minister. she was in her deepest rief in 1964-65, she wrote mcmillan and said if i married my children well, that would be world.geance against the she felt she had achieved that vengeance. >> the mother-in-law kennedy very, very long life. hamlin wants to know how did

ackie get along with rose kennedy? >> thank you. i am going to take that. >> i just published a biography of rose kennedy. >> fine one too. you, michael. this past summer. they seemed to get along to begin with. as she did with ambassador kennedy. but she seemed much closer to her father-in-law than mother-in-law. and rote diplomatically said, dear mrs. kennedy, thank your goodh for all of advice. rose kennedy liked to meat out advice. one of herpeses of advice is tand at an angle when one was having a photograph taken because it makes one look slimmer. mrs. kennedy, for teaching me that lesson. her.he wrote very kindly to after the assassination, there were some issues about whether ackie would come back for the opening and the dedication of the kennedy center and she just y decided that she

couldn't. she couldn't face that. she couldn't face that as she said the widow kennedy for the rest of her life. she wanted to be with her children. it was too painful. rose, of course, happy filled in for her. theren see in the letters was tension. rose appreciated she would be invited often to be with mrs. kennedy and john and caroline. she got along seemingly very well. with jackie long for having mary onassis. ose kennedy said jack would have wanted her to be happy. >> that's right. ou described her as being homeless after the death of kennedy. the family didn't give her a place to live? >> she had money. she had $150,000 from the

kennedy trust that were coming our way. he had 10,000 in a pension as it were. >> in the mid 60s. today's n or so for dollars. by her standards, that wasn't enough. physical place a to live, she said in a famous white, w with theodore the camelot interview, she said, i want to live with my children lived with jack, georgetown, and with the kennedys on the case. could have gone to the cape to live in hyannis. but she went to georgetown. across the a home street. it was inundated with tourists and photographers peeping in her up on the coming porch. she couldn't bear it. sher a relative few months,

took off for new york and spent the rest of the time there. holly hawn on facebook. did she have to testify for the warren commission? >> she did. she did. one or two others came to her georgetown and asked her about the motorcade. it was brief, less than a half an hour, she did have to testify. some of the president's wounding was kept from the public at the time because it was too graphic -- theories continue to this day bout the lone assassin, lee harvey oswald? did she express an opinion? > not in anything that i would trust. she kept her counsel in all things. left, don is ins

colorado springs. >> thank you for the show. my question is how important is to kennedy's catholic faith her. >> the kennedys were catholics. to them?tant was it >> i'll begin on this. she had con flingt throughout her life. when she ouble man.rried a divorced was supported in doing that by family cardinal. public figures two, things. one, you never get to the truth if they'res marriage married.

umber two, you get to the bottom of what the religious feeling was. sometimes presidents and first ladies exaggerate that. sometimes there's more than appears on the surface. > as michael pointed out so well through the oral history, she feels really having her in those ut her faith --ths after >> exactly. she talks about her husband praying at night. >> like a little boy. superstition. he said initially just in case there was a god. >> a wager. she spoke to a father and had suicidal feelings after the assassination and decided that would not be the way to go. >> and with children. >> with children. going to close here with jaclyn kennedy's voice one last time from the oral histories and this talks about the white house years as we finish up here.

lets's listen. >> in the white house thought i could get out. when jack l you how would see me get down, he would send me away. to greece which wasn't good this year after losing patrick. i said i could walk down the nightclub. to a i used to worry about going to the white house. they wereund out that the happiest times of my life. >> i used to worry about going to the white house. closing comments?

>> i think that was genuine. and i think here's the case impact ashad a bigger first lady and also what we talked about tonight, they might ones people the talked about at the time she served. >> you suggest she was a transformational first lady. she set the stage for those to follow. >> i think so. generation was a bridge between traditional wives and mothers and the post women's liberation of the modern era. i would say it's exactly what lady.s as first there were traditional first ladies immediately preceding her. they were much more modern and ull partners with their husbands and taking a particular policy to work on. >> the book of the jaclyn ly nedy tapes is wide available. get the set with the tapes and listen to her in her own voice. wonderful, should have it. the new frontier, widely

available. thank you. >> thank you for everything. >> it's opinion a joy for allf way. learn along the have a good evening, and thank you for being with us.

>> ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you here tonight. counsel general and the organization we have here at the 31st floor. of this magnificent building. sorry, it's dark outside. i invite you to come back here the daytime. it's a magnificent view of the bay. but that's not the topic of this night. we will speak pabt food waste. sorry to be in front of the

panel. the microphone would collapse. a dutch ceo from unilever which is one of the biggest food i ail offices in the world, think. a dutch anglo company. he's been invited by ban general the secretary of the united nations to be part of the sustainability of the whole world. in a speech he delivered on the this year.thes couple of days ago, he said $750 s no excuse for billion in food waste a year. we need $18 billion u.s.